Patton Universe: A Sanders Sides/SU AU

Part 8: The Snake in The Sand

"It's sooo hoootttt..." 

Patton's hands eagerly fumbled through his bag, a big heavy thing with paw prints embroidered all over the exterior, and scanned around for his water bottle. Of all the places Patton had imagined going on his first planned mission, the sweltering desert wasn't exactly one of his preferred options but he was much too pleased to be even going along to complain. That being said he wasn't even sure what they were meant to be doing out here other than going for a rather tiresome walk. Swapping out a bottle for his cardigan, he took three big gulps before Logan gently pried it from his hands.

"It's a desert, Patton." Logan groaned, "It's going to be hot"

"Well, it would be nice of it to cool down for a bit." A strange thing scuttled past his feet, a bit bigger than a rat and a lot less furry. "What was that?" Trekking through a flat stretch of desert was taking a toll on his small legs and he was beginning to wish he had some footwear a bit more suit to fleeing for his life than sandals.  

Roman took the lead, scaling this large mound of sand that seemed to crumble beneath his steps, as if the very ground below him was being pulled out from underneath. More of the weird creatures emerged, their nest seemingly being disturbed by all the chaos. "It's an ancient race of monsters that eat people hands." 

"No, it's not." spat Amethyst, from under the shadow of his pullover. Slowly the gem had been pulling on the strings and tightening the hood until his eyes were two purple dots glaring out into the distant pink-stained horizon. It was a wonder he had come out for this mission in the first place but he had strange keenness about his pace. "We're nearly there so be quiet." Sure enough, after having successfully traversed the grainy terrain, they arrived at a mysterious sight. Towers of sand, pressed hard like brick,were growing and shrinking in a jagged rhythm.  There were great turrets with no doors, stairs that led to only open skies and walls that did no purpose but mildly disturb the view. Whilst Logan looked on at the mess with contempt and confusion, Amethyst already had his weapon summoned and was using the point to try and line up his view. "Right," he grumbled, "Patton, stay right there. You two with me."

"Excuse me, Mr Dark and Mysterious," Roman rebutted, "Since when were you the one giving orders."

"Since I'm the one who isn't an reckless idiot."

With a few offended grunts the conversation dissolved and the gems sprang off to explore the shifting landscape leaving the boy alone to slump down with the bottle Logan had left behind. He could still see their shapes jumping away in the background, once in a while hitting a structure and bring it falling down before another grew taller on its place. His body wasn't quite content to relax here, with the ever posing threat of the "hand eating creatures"so he decided to relocate to a higher patch where they would hopefully steer clear. Just as he refocused on the bouncing silhouettes, his view went completely dark. At first it seemed, he impulsively shut his eyes from the sunlight but, no. They were in fact perfectly open. Instead, stepping back, he saw the true cause. A wall constructed millimeters from his face. It must have been three times as tall as he was and spurred a thought. Which way was it safer to run? Patton's heel dug firmly in place, refusing to obey his deep will to flee and he watched helplessly as the base fizzled away into he wind, and then tire weight came heaping down above him.

Then he was on his back, his spine tingling and his gut pulsing. Breaths were short but uninterrupted. No sand poured down his throat. He was okay? Mostly, at least. There was a weird buzzing in ears that first seemed like his mind recovering from the shock of whatever had just gone on but it evolved into a slight hiss. His tired eyes peered up to see a great long twisting being cast in yellow and it stared down at him with emotionless yet piercing eyes. Its tail was still poised up from striking and sand was slowly tumbling off its scales.